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First and foremost, Hogwarts was a castle. A place of safety and protection. And she would protect all within, even from themselves.

As soon as her children entered her for the first time, they were hers. She knew them deeply, as she felt their magic intertwine with hers from the first moment.

The year Harry Potter entered Hogwarts she knew that something was coming. That manipulative Headmaster had been plotting, and his excitement was growing.

She felt the strength of her Harry’s magic the moment he walked through the door. It reached out to meet her joyfully, with all the glee a child should have, and far more scars than any child should bear.

He was hers, now, and she would care for him like all the others, but he would bear special watching, especially with that Headmaster so focused on him. The house elves had reported the old goat cackling in his tower more than once in the weeks preceding the first of September. And she’d already started moving to dissemble some of his plans and plots.

She would keep her Harry safe now.

There was no troll to almost catch her Hermione Granger on Halloween night. Hogwarts had been forced to let the creature in due to that Headmaster’s meddling, but she had almost immediately contained it in a solid stone room with no exits. When the professors came looking for the troll, there were large, flashing signs pointing towards the room containing the troll. This incited mild panic, until lovely, capable McGonagall and Snape worked together to stun the thing and remove it from the castle so that the Department of Creature Safety could relocate it. The professors found her Hermione along with Ron Weasley and Harry Potter, safe and sound in an abandoned classroom. Her Harry had stared Ron Weasley into an apology, and the three of them were closer to friends than before.

There had been no Quirrell to raise a fuss about a troll in the castle, as she had removed that parasite from him the second he’d walked through her wards. Possession of one of hers was Not Allowed, and she had made it so. He’d stumbled and looked slightly confused before carrying on. The soul piece that had once been part of her Tom had been placed into a mirror hidden within the castle. The soul piece didn’t have enough sentience to be aware, not without the one it was possessing, but the mirror still radiated vague malevolence. She’d made sure that Headmaster couldn’t ever find it. Since Quirrell hadn’t found the troll as planned, that Headmaster had made one of her house elves raise a fuss. Awful man, forcing them into that sort of a bond. She’d tried to remove it, tried so hard, but he’d drained her of so much, and the elves had told her they would bear it until they could remove the old goat and restore her.

Since Quirrell had no parasite soul piece, the Quidditch games went unimpeded. No curses or jinxes, and her Hermione Granger did not light a professor on fire. (That time, anyways. She was such a precocious girl.)

(There was still a dragon brought on the grounds, but she’d had the house elves remove the egg before it hatched and take it to the dragon sanctuary in Romania. Such a good lad, her Charlie.)

She’d scolded her Severus Snape the best she could, for his treatment of those supposed to be under his care, but she understood that he was under a vow to that Headmaster, who’d taken it and twisted it for his own purposes. She couldn’t free him, not yet. And he’d tried his best, once she’d given him a reminder via the house elves. He had always been willing to listen to her.

That ridiculous obstacle course that Headmaster had forced the professors to set up was dismantled almost instantly, of course. The cerebrus was removed from the third-floor hallway and shuffled out to Hagrid, who was delighted. That Headmaster kept making him put it back, but she was persistent. And Hagrid learned to hide it better; happy and safe in her forest.

The Devil’s Snare was sent back to the greenhouse where it belonged, and her Pomona Sprout never told. (A small cutting made its way to her Neville Longbottom, where it flourished to his delight, and to the mild terror and utmost respect of the other boys in the dorm. There was much less cruel teasing that year, for some reason. She did the best she could.)

Those excellent flying keys were encased in a small room, with an unbreakable glass wall facing one of the corridors around the Charms classrooms. They were an excellent piece of spellwork, after all. She was very proud of her Filius Flitwick. When that Headmaster had asked him about them, he’d simply laughed and said weren’t they an excellent demonstration of what Charms could do, and that he’d made a few extra to be used as such. She’d sent one of the elves his way that evening with his favourite pastry, as a reward. He’d smiled, and thanked her.

The giant chessboard was relocated as well, to an empty classroom on the fourth floor. She’d gotten the house elves to tweak the magic, so players were now only marched off at sword point, rather than bashed over the head and dragged off. Much safer that way, and still an excellent education tool and great piece of fun, for those who discovered it. That Headmaster was not one of them, to her delight. Though McGonagall had smiled when she'd noticed it, pleased, and started sending students that way.

There was no troll, as she’d already removed it, same as the other one. She did not approve of this continued breaching of her wards by that Headmaster, and made her displeasure known. He still lived within her walls, after all.

The magic fire had been relocated within the castle, and the bottles with poisons and potions removed by one of her loyal house elves. If that fire ended up in a certain old goat’s fireplace, and if several items in his rooms mysteriously went missing in said fireplace, well, she was sure that was in her children’s best interests. No matter that it made the old goat enraged and paranoid. That was simply a side effect, if an enjoyable one.

As for the mirror, well, she’d needed somewhere to put her Tom’s soul piece. An already magic mirror was easiest, and it was convenient as well. A mirror that people could waste away in front of was not something that belonged anywhere close to her children.

The precious stone that had been hidden within the mirror had been removed. She’d finally been able to contact Gringotts at winter holidays, since they were quite a ways away, and she hadn’t spoken to them in so very long. Over a hundred years, she believed, by the way humans measured things. She quite preferred how the hedgehogs measured time, by the others they met, thank you very much. The stone had been transported back to Gringotts by means of a house elf and goblin escort and returned to its rightful owner. (Nicholas Flamel hadn’t been one of hers, but he’d visited once, and she’d quite liked the depth of his magic. Like a deep ocean sinkhole, calm and dangerous. Quite polite, too.)

She had to watch, unable to interfere, when her Harry Potter had begged that Headmaster to let him stay over the summer, and had been told no. She’d quivered with rage and watched with deep satisfaction as that Headmaster had twitched for days. Her lovely, lovely house elves had come up with an idea, however, that helped sate her protective fury. They would take shifts to watch over Harry Potter, without using any magic that would register at the Ministry, and would make sure he ate and was as safe as could be without getting caught or making those around him suspicious. Since she had no reach in the Muggle world, they would be her hands, eyes, and feet.

That would have to be good enough for now, though she waited anxiously for the day he would be back under her roof and safe.

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Her house elves reported back to her over the summer, helping her keep tabs on her Harry Potter. She was enraged at how much they had to feed him, or re-direct the Muggles’ anger, or help with the house chores. Her rooms were empty, the professors gone home for the summer or traveling or at conferences or, in that Headmaster’s case, meddling in something he shouldn’t be. Her very stones shook with her fury, and the portraits shouted their displeasure before the house elves calmed them.

She heard about Dobby almost as soon as her house elves intercepted him. He would not be making trouble for her Harry, not on her watch, nor that of her house elves. He was caught, and brought to her, where her elves could sit him down in a room and make him explain without punishing himself.

Dobby had explained that he wanted the Great Harry Potter to be safe, and her house elves explained that her Harry Potter was safe within her walls, and always would be. And that he was not safe outside of them. They explained what they’d done for him in his first year, and Dobby was convinced. Her elves got him to go back to his masters, to keep him safe. She mourned that she couldn’t help him, caught as he was with a harsh family. But she had no power off of her grounds, and not nearly enough on it.

Gilderoy Lockhart never made it onto her grounds to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. Every time he got close, he got confused. He couldn’t even see the castle, much less get onto the grounds. When that Headmaster had given him directions, the fake had not been able to find her castle. Even when that Headmaster sent a fuming Snape to fetch him, Lockhart couldn’t see the castle or get onto the grounds. Even when the old goat attempted to apparate him onto the grounds, he couldn’t stay on the grounds for more than a second before he was removed and back to a confused state.

Her house elves were truly remarkable beings. So very underestimated; that Headmaster never paid their magic any attention. They were so very good at the subtle magics.

Eventually, the old goat had to give up trying to bring the fraud onto her grounds. He had messed with her wards, and brought in experts to look at it, and finally had to give up. After all, it wasn’t her wards that were keeping him off the grounds. He brought in a replacement, finally, a senior auror on medical leave. He was one of hers, and she let him onto the grounds happily.

Lockhart had been one of hers, before, but the second he got close to her, she read his magic and saw what he had been doing. Saw who he had hurt, saw whose minds he had torn apart in his pathetic search for fame. And so she rebuked him. Banned him from ever entering her, especially as a teacher. He would not be allowed anywhere near the rest of her children. Especially her vulnerable Harry.

The basilisk, Slytherin’s basilisk, Libri, was never a threat to the students. Never had been, either. No one of hers had died by his gaze, not a single one of her students. He was another part of her, a partner in the defense and protection of her students almost since the beginning. There was no Moaning Myrtle. Her Myrtle had graduated, happy, and was working on her potions Mastery. The only ghosts within Hogwarts’ walls were ones that chose to be there.

One of her students, a Ginevra Weasley, had a cursed object in her bag when she arrived on the train station. The train was as much Hogwarts’ as the forest, and she caught the cursed soul piece within her wards. It, and the curse attached that would place a compulsion and obsession on the writer, and that would drain their life force into the diary. That was not safe for any student, much less a first year. So, like all the other dangerous items students tried to bring onto her grounds, it was confiscated. Even more so because it contained a piece of her Tom’s soul.

She moved the piece of her Tom’s soul to the mirror that held the first piece. That was enough of his soul that it regained a consciousness, the ability to think. Well, plot. Now that the piece of her Tom was large enough for him to think, all he did was plot. It tickled at the back of her awareness, and gave her both joy and sorrow.

She wasn’t worried. Her and her house elves had worked together to put him in that mirror, and no matter how much her Tom plotted, he wouldn’t be able to get out. Besides, enough of a mind to plot was not enough to regain his former genius. Without that complete, brilliant mind, he didn’t even have a chance.

So, her Harry Potter’s second year was as safe as she could make it. She was thrilled to hear from her house elves that the Weasleys had come and taken him to the Burrow just after his birthday. Since there was no Dobby to get in their way, they made it safely to the train station and onto her train on September 1st.

She couldn’t save her Harry from everything, of course. There was still a dueling club, that Headmaster’s idea, of course. Her Harry still showed everyone that he had the gift of Parseltongue. The other students got after him for it, unfairly, but without the threat of the basilisk, there was no fear about an Heir of Slytherin. And those Weasley boys, the twins, were fierce in their protection of him.

She liked those boys. They were mischievous, but not cruel. They made people, her children, laugh with joy. They stood in defense of those who needed it and were kind to her house elves. They couldn’t hear her, not really, but they still listened to the whispers. And they followed them, listened to her.

The nonsense around her Harry’s Parseltongue didn’t last too long. Students focused on the next scandal, when an older student, a sixth year, came across the Acromantula nest deep in her forest. The spiders were stubborn, and deaf, and refused to listen to her, and she didn’t have enough strength to forcibly evict them, but she protected her child the best she could, and alerted Hagrid by way of Fang. The student was safe, and her Draco Malfoy wrote to his father about the spiders. The spiders were then taken care of despite the thinly veiled protests curtesy of that Headmaster. She wasn’t sad to see then go, especially when she knew they would be safe where they were being relocated to. (Just because she didn’t want them near her children didn’t mean she wanted them destroyed.)

That meeting, when Mr. Malfoy came to visit that Headmaster, gave Hogwarts an opportunity. One of her house elves had, invisibly, tossed a filthy sock at Mr. Malfoy, who had thrown it away in disgust. Dobby caught it, and Dobby was free. Mr. Malfoy was furious, but there was no one to blame except that Headmaster, and Hogwarts was perfectly fine with that anger being directed towards the old goat.

Dobby had immediately gone to her Harry Potter, and her Harry had such a kind heart that he refused a servant, and instead made a friend. Very few would have made friends with a house elf, and she was cheered that her Harry was one of them.

Her Harry didn’t ask to stay over the summer, that time. But Hogwarts still raged, and that Headmaster bore the brunt of it, as should be. Her rage, and that of her house elves, who had watched what her Harry went through in that house. They watched him, again, carefully and with increasing care. She plotted, best she could with that Headmaster’s restrictions and drains on her. She would bear this, because she must, but she wouldn’t let it be forever. Not when one of hers was being harmed.

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Her Harry’s third year almost starts with a bang, literally, when her house elves have to prevent him from inflating his horrible Aunt Marge like a balloon. Hogwarts knew that, even with her elves in Little Whinging to help her Harry, that he cannot continue to live there. It is no longer safe for him, not that was safe before. She is still not sure exactly what she will be able to do, but if she has to keep him within her walls over the summer, then she will. It would be difficult, as that is when she is empty to allow her wards to reset, but if she has to do it to keep him safe, she will.

She will not stand for cruelty against one of hers. Not if she can help it.

He has to stay in that house, still, for the rest of the summer, because she cannot reach him. Not yet. But the Weasleys come for him again, for the last two weeks of summer, and she is pleased with that. It’s good for her Harry to have friends.

So she will plot, and plan, and if necessary, she will make another option herself.

Her children are safe on her train, and within her grounds, despite what that Headmaster had decided, as she will never allow those soul-suckers onto her grounds, around her children. They are creatures following their nature, she will not begrudge them for that, but there will be no Dementors around her children. She melted them with extreme prejudice, the house elves joining in gleefully, until the creatures get the message and refuse to come into her grounds for fear of being turned into a puddle of goo. That Headmaster pretended like he is reassured, and informed the Minister of the strength of her wards, but in his private quarters he seethed. Her elves report that he spent several hours over the past week conjuring plates and throwing them against a wall to break them.

She ensured some of the shards ended up within his sheets. (If they also end up in his beard, that was entirely the elves’ idea.)

Her Remus Lupin was a good choice for the DADA professor. Her scarred, wary Remus, who adored learning and teaching. He had always been allowed on her grounds, from that first cautious step onto her train in his first year. She had, and would continue to, block off her forest for him on those full moons, with no one in or out until she knew everyone would be safe. (Those friends of him that had become animagi, she had allowed in, but had kept a careful eye on. There had been no incident with her Severus that scarred both him and her Remus.) A werewolf is no match for the strength of her wards, nor her elves. Regardless of the old goat’s meddling.

Safe. Her children are safe within her.

When her Sirius Black arrived, she lets him in. He is innocent, after all, and desperately seeking refuge. (She is built to give refuge, and it is as intrinsic to her as her stones.) (But she does not let him threaten any of her children, and he is kept away from the dorms within her walls. Instead, he is fed and scrubbed clean by her elves and fed potions until he no longer sways in the breeze.)

She saw the rat that was once her Peter Pettigrew in his mind, as wild and shattered as it is, and her house elves bring her the animagi rat that she confiscated when her Percy Weasley tried to bring it in his first year. She had known the rat was her Peter, from his school days, but sneaking into her aboard a child, masquerading as a pet, were not the actions of an innocent person.

But she could not read his magic, not as a rat, so he was stunned, where he could do no harm until she found out what had happened. Once her Sirius Black told her, she rebuked Peter Pettigrew. For the harm he did, the traitor, to the ones who called him friend. And to her precious Harry Potter, as well.

And for carrying the Dark Mark. She can feel the horror and pain within the mark, echoing, and tainting those around it, and will not allow those who took it willingly onto her grounds. (Except her Severus Snape. He was hers first, and still is, despite his wavering. He returned, and rebuked the mark, and fights it still. That Headmaster twists the vow he made out of desperation, and she cannot free him yet. He is not innocent, but he is pardoned, and working towards absolution. He still listens to her, and she helps keep him in line.)

So she rebuked the once hers Peter Pettigrew. And then she sent him, still stunned, with one of her loyal house elves to her Amelia Bones, who is Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. (She’s done so well. Hogwarts is proud.)

The newspapers appear the next day: Peter Pettigrew Traitor and Murderer! Sirius Black Innocent of All Charges!

Her Remus Lupin goes back to his rooms, dazed and grieved, to find Sirius Black sitting on his floor, deposited there by a house elf. He yelps, then yells, then hugs the other man and cries. Her Sirius cries too, and cries even more when her Remus tells him that he’s free.

Her Sirius Black leaves, and she cannot feel him, but she can feel him in her Remus’ magic when he returns to her grounds from visits, and he is healing.

Which is good, for her Sirius, for her Remus, and for her plans.

There are no promises of death towards anyone, much less her Harry, in Divination classes. Sybil Trelawney, who is one of hers and lives within her, is no fraud of a Seer. She gives true Words, and refuses to teach those who hold no spark of promise. (They are tested in Third Year, to see if they have promise or not.) That Headmaster tries to change this frequently, but Hogwarts and the Board both refuse. The students have one semester of classes in Third year to learn about Divination, and how to spot Frauds, and to be tested, and that is the extent of it.

(There was a period of time where that Headmaster was trying to change this, but Hogwarts refused to allow it, and she was still strong enough that he could not make her. Now, it is set in stone.)

Her Harry got to go to Hogsmeade with his friends, when her Sirius Black sent him a permission slip via owl. Her Harry is stunned to discover a familial relation in his godfather (she could feel the bonds between them in their magic once she’d seen them both), and soon accompanies her Remus Lupin on some of his visits, both of them returning happy, magic dancing.

Her Harry begins to visit her Remus of his own accord, as well. They have tea (her elves include their favourite treats) and talk about her Harry, and about her James Potter and Lily Evans.

They discuss her Harry’s life with those Muggles, at least some of it, and her Remus’ rage erupts, still neatly contained until the next full moon, when he shreds trees to burn it down. But it still simmers, deep and hot.

Hogwarts is pleased that someone else is enraged at the treatment of her Harry.

(Her Harry does not share about all his scars, not yet. Healing takes time, but each step is important.)

Her Remus takes her Harry to Gringotts, and they come back with paperwork, stacks of it. Her Harry’s magic is ecstatic. Gringotts later tells her that they appointed her Remus Lupin as Harry’s caregiver, since her Harry is Sirius Black’s heir, and Remus Lupin is Sirius’ estate manager.

Her Harry will not have to go back to those Muggles, and that Headmaster cannot do a thing about it, since it is a Gringotts matter. (And since he does not know. They are careful, and she and her elves help.)

(The atmosphere within her is bubbly and happy for weeks, except for that Headmaster, who only grows ever more paranoid.) (Which may be helped by some of the potions and tricks her elves have been slipping him.)

There is no trial for Buckbeak. Her Draco Malfoy is safe from his own foolishness, and when he still writes to his father, complaining that the hippogriff was aggressive, there is no hippogriff for them to find when they come looking. (Hagrid only finds him later, as the half-giant is not good at keeping secrets.) (Except when it really matters.)

Her Harry still gets the Marauders’ Map from her Weasley twins, but this time he takes it to her Remus, who has already told him of Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs. They explore together, and she can see a bond growing between their magic by the day.

A Firebolt still arrives for Christmas, but the sender is labeled, and her Harry is so very pleased. Gryffindor still wins the Quidditch Cup. (Her Harry is an excellent Seeker, after all.)

There is no use of a time-turner by her Hermione Granger. That is not safe, not for her physical or mental health, and Hogwarts refuses to allow it onto the grounds. It is returned to the Department of Mysteries by one of her house elves, and lovely McGonagall talks her Hermione into a reasonable, if full, schedule.  

There are still Patroni cast on her grounds. But this time, the stag is joined by an otter and a Jack Russell terrier. Her Remus Lupin teaches her Harry, as well as her Hermione and Ron, and all three grow stronger. Stronger in their magic, and stronger in their friendship.

Her Harry goes home with her Remus that year, looking forwards to meeting her Sirius when they get there. She mourns that her Remus will not be returning, but with the Black accounts opened within Gringotts, he will be too busy to teach. She is happy for him, for them all.

She still sends a house elf to keep an eye on her Harry. He is such a trouble magnet, after all.

But this summer, he is safe.

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The Quidditch World Cup occurs over the summer, and her Harry gets to go, but this time with Sirius and Remus, with the family that has claimed him. Her house elves follow them, as they have all summer, reporting back to her. (For the first time, her Harry had a happy summer. Filled with the laughter and joy and vacations and family he hadn’t got before. Her Pomona Sprout shrieks with joy when she sees how much the greenhouses have grown from Hogwarts’ overabundant joy.)

(That Headmaster does not even return to her that summer, not daring to.)

Her boys meet up with the Weasleys, one big happy family. (For the sheer joy of it, and to help hide from that Headmaster.) Her elves trail along behind them, watching her Harry make friends again, this time with her Cedric Diggory, who is a quintessential Hufflepuff (loyal and friendly and fierce).

They watch the twins’ bet with Ludo Bagman (and add a pinch of magic to ensure there are no tricks).

Bartemius Crouch Senior arrives as well, and she knows what their plans are, him and that Headmaster. (And she has plans of her own.)

Her elves see the house elf Winky, worn down but still so loyal to the ones she has deemed hers. Hogwarts shares their grief for a trapped sibling, but the elves cannot free each other, and she cannot reach them.

The game is played, and her elves have no care for it except for the joy it brings her Harry, and the others that are hers.

There is no cheating with leprechaun gold; the elf magic coming into play. Her twins will have more than enough money for their plans for a shop, now. (She will always support her children, best she can. And if it means stiffing a cheater, all the more so.)

There is still an attack, that night, but none of her children are caught up in it. Her elves know her heart, and the children are removed to the Burrow at the first sign of trouble, enough adults with them to guard. (Safe, once more.) She cannot save everyone, but she can protect hers.

Her Harry does not lose his wand, because he is not there for it to be lost.

Winky is still blamed for the Dark Mark, and cast away by her master. (There was no one there to vouch for her.) (But she is brought to Hogwarts, and comforted.) (There is grief, but no drinking, and healing can begin.)

That Headmaster still announces the Triwizard Tournament at the Opening Feast. (She cannot close his mouth. Though the elves do try.) But Hogwarts has plans, and while she welcomes the arrival of visitors, of those belonging to others, she will not allow something so dangerous on the grounds. (Will not allow a plan so dangerous to entrap her Harry Potter.) So it will not happen, she will not allow it, but she will wait to act until the visitors are here, and allow that Headmaster to think his plans are in place. (Overconfidence breeds disaster, and she is happy to allow him to participate in his own destruction.)

Her Bartemius Crouch Jr tries to come onto her grounds, but he is hiding under a potion, Polyjuice potion, and he carries the Dark Mark (horrible, poisonous magic). He is imprisoned in stone, immobilized and exposed to view. She brings her professors, her Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall and Pomona Sprout and Filius Flitwick, and she sends an elf to her Amelia Bones, who arrives to see her Bartemius Crouch Jr’s face change back to his own when the potion he tried to hide under wore off. (She had already removed her Alastor Moody from the trunk he was captured in. Precious, loyal house elves with tricky fingers and even trickier magics. She called her Poppy Pomfrey to attend him, and he is already huffing and stomping around, muttering.)

She does not rebuke her Bartemius Crouch Jr, as his mind is broken, by his years in the Dementors’ prison and then trapped in his own home. She will not allow him on her grounds again, not until he has proved himself either healing or totally gone.

He is arrested by her Amelia, but her Amelia is fair and just, and can see that his mind is broken. He is not confined to a prison cell, but to the secure ward at St. Mungo’s hospital. He may not heal, not if he does not choose to, but at least he will not decline further due to outside forces.

(She mourns him, mourns the choices he made, mourns what was done to him. He is still hers, after all. Is, not was.)

Bartemius Crouch Sr. is arrested by her Amelia as well, her elves tell her, passed along from the Bones elves. (The house elves see and hear everything.) He is going straight to the prison he stuck his son in, and left his wife to die in, and Hogwarts feels satisfied.

Her Alastor Moody refuses to teach for over a week, while that Headmaster goes into a panic, until lovely McGonagall goes to see him. To ask him to teach for the children’s sake, to help them learn to protect themselves. He agrees, more calm for the week passed, and Hogwarts is pleased. He will teach them well, not cruelly, and will stand up to the old goat to boot. (She welcomes another ally, especially this year, with all her plans. He will be a distraction, even if he cannot hear her very well. Not anymore.)

There are no Unforgiveables demonstrated on her students, no trauma for her Neville Longbottom or Harry Potter in that class.

No students are turned into ferrets. Though her Hermione Granger still slaps her Draco Malfoy upside the head. (Hogwarts loves him, but he deserved it. He is still spoiled, and naïve, and needs to keep growing up.)

Her Hermione Granger still tries to found SPEW, and Hogwarts loves her for her spirit of justice, but the house elves do not answer to the students, and her socks and hats will not free them. (Not that they would leave Hogwarts, but they would be free of that Headmaster at least.) She sends one of her elves to talk to her Hermione, and tell her the truth of the bonds the elves hold, and the difference between the willing and unwilling, the supportive and the suffocating. Her Hermione stops, and hears, and immediately starts planning a political campaign. (She’ll get her way, sooner or later.)

The students belonging to the other schools arrive, and Hogwarts meets their magic, tinged with that of their own schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, with joy. So many new children, hers to hold and care for for a time. So many stories, and colours, and feelings to feed her strength. (She will grow stronger this year than that Headmaster expects, and will hide it best she can, until it is needed.)  

The headmaster that carries the Dark Mark is not allowed in, though she allows him to stay on the ship he arrived on, for his students. But his stay will not be pleasant, her elves are too tricksy for that. He meets with her Severus, more than once, at that Headmaster’s bequest. (Her precious, lying Severus.) (She thwarts those meetings, more than once, in a way that cannot be blamed on her Severus. He is relieved, and she is glad.)

Since they have arrived, Hogwarts puts her plans in motion.

The magic item that was supposed to choose the champions on Halloween disappears between one moment and the next. That Headmaster rages and yells, and sends people looking and looking. (She tells her Severus not to bother, and he lies to that Headmaster with his skill, listening as ever to her. Instead, he takes a nap.) (He deserves it.)

They do not find it, the Goblet of Fire; her elves are too good for that. (It is not longer even within her walls. It has been sent to Gringotts, to be held within her vaults that not even that Headmaster knows of. She will take no chances with her children’s safety, nor with that of those entrusted to her. That piece of magic does not know enough to be careful with those that are given to it. And it is tampered with, to boot.)

Her elves find a diadem in the Room of Lost Things, a diadem with yet another piece of her Tom’s soul in it. She grieves that he was so afraid he tore his soul apart so many times. The first times were fear, sheer and bone-deep, but the rest were insanity, brought on by those earlier choices.

This time, when she moves the shard of his soul to the mirror, his soul is large enough to gain an edge of intelligence, not just sentience. Her Tom does not stop plotting, not yet, but it loses an edge of its previous insane maliciousness. He is not yet enough of himself to get out of the mirror, but Hogwarts is hopeful at his progress.

The diadem is returned to the Ravenclaw tower, set into place with house elf magic so it cannot be removed again, not without her permission.

(She could not find the diadem or her Tom’s soul before due to the magic woven into the Room of Lost Things. But her elves had been looking for her, and finally found it, and they have returned more of her Tom to himself. The Room is a piece of her, but the magic is very tricky, and hard for even her to focus on for too long.)

Hogwarts cannot remove the piece of Tom’s soul from her Harry Potter. (She saw it the instant she touched his magic.) It is too deep within her Harry’s own soul and magic, and she would have to tear him apart to remove it. (She would never hurt him.) But she can still protect him. A layer of her own magic, wrapped safely around the soul shard, separating the two souls completely. There are no visions for her Harry, no bleeding from his scar, no pain or headaches. He is as safe as she can make him. No one else can touch his soul like that.

Her Rita Skeeter is allowed on the grounds to report on the disappearance of the Goblet, but Hogwarts locks away her animagus form. (She will not hurt anyone by eavesdropping in secret.) And her lying quills mysteriously burst into flame. Every single one of them, every time she attempts to bring one in. (Hogwarts knows the truth, and will not allow the lies to hurt her children, best she can.) (Her Hermione Granger does not have to capture the beetle, not this time, but that does not make her any less cunning.) Her Rita is not allowed near her vulnerable ones, somehow just missing them every time. (Hogwarts will move her very stones to keep her own safe. And has, many times before.)

When that Headmaster and those in the Ministry attempt to go ahead with the Tournament anyways, without the Goblet, she still does not allow it. The dragons are not allowed on her grounds, she will not allow anyone in her lake, no maze is grown, and no creatures may be brought in. Hogwarts works with her elves to sow mayhem and chaos for that Headmaster, and to create a safe learning space for her children.

In lieu of the Tournament, her professors put on smaller ones, with other things, with anyone allowed to attend. Quidditch is re-instated, with a team from each Beauxbatons and Durmstrang playing as well. Gobstones, chess, exploding snap, and others. Running, archery, swimming, and other activities to try and keep that many students out of trouble. (It doesn’t always work, of course, but Hogwarts and her elves help, and nothing catastrophic happens.)

There is still a Yule Ball, and some of the accompanying drama from teenagers who do not know what they want or how to go about getting there. She watches indulgently, used to this type of angst. Her Harry asks a girl from the year below him, her Luna Lovegood. Her Luna glows, pleased to have a new friend. (She listens to Hogwarts so very well, and Hogwarts wants good things for her sweet girl.)

Her Sirius and Remus arrive for the Ball, and her Harry’s magic glows at the arrival of his family. He dances with them both, and with her Hermione and Luna, and with Dobby, who comes up from the kitchens and laughs delightedly when asked by her precious Harry.

Her Harry ends the year with new friends, including her Cedric Diggory and her Luna Lovegood, and goes home once more with his family. (That Headmaster still does not know, as Hogwarts and her elves have kept him far too busy. Missing papers, and tampered meals, and other tricks the elves know only too well. It will hold well enough for the summer.)

Chapter Text

Her Harry is safer with her Sirius and Remus, but not completely, and the reports Hogwarts receive over the summer make her glad that she agreed with her house elves to continue keeping an eye on him over the summers.

There were Dementors, soul-suckers, set loose near where her Harry and her Sirius and her Remus were! Fortunately, her Sirius and her Remus are both powerful fighters, and chased off the Dementors with their Patroni before anyone can get hurt. Harry also conjured his Patronus, and she is so proud of him for it. (There is no fear of the Ministry, not on the Black family summer estate. They cannot detect a child’s magic behind those kinds of wards. They cannot detect anything behind those wards.)

Her Sirius, now Lord Black, raises an unholy stink about Dementors set loose near his estate. He does not bring her Harry into it, that it still a secret, so far as they can manage it. But the outrage of someone setting Dementors loose near a powerful pureblood Lord’s summer estate reverberates throughout both the Wizengamot and upper Wixen society, regardless of previous scandal. (And they were set loose, there is no doubt about that. Dementors do not travel in groups unless coerced.)  

An investigation is opened, and progresses more rapidly than any within the corrupt Ministry have for years. (Hogwarts is not pleased by what goes on in that building. The Ministry building itself is not pleased either, but is too trapped, too tied down, to enact the changes it longs for.)

But before the investigation can catch the culprit, Hogwarts discovers the next plan of that Headmaster. That Headmaster and her Cornelius Fudge, the Minister (who is too easily led, to her sorrow. One such as that should not hold the power he does), have placed Dolores Umbridge as the new Defense professor.

The rage Hogwarts feels as that woman’s magic touches hers could power a volcano. (Her house elves take that power and store it in secret ways, for when it is needed.) (It will be needed.)

Hogwarts does not rebuke Dolores Umbridge, she erases her. That woman is no longer hers, is not even once hers. Hogwarts seizes that woman, and brands her crimes (especially against her Harry) onto her skin. Red and burning, they will not be disappeared or healed by any method, magical or otherwise.

Hogwarts rips her magic out of that woman, tearing a hole where she normally leaves a tether to those who are hers. She, with the help of her elves, brand that woman’s magic as well. Any place, or creature, that connects to her magic, or reads her magic, will know what she did, and know what Hogwarts did in response. A burning mark, invisible but pervasive, that will mark her as an enemy. (Even those who can’t see or read it will feel the touch of the mark’s magic and be wary.)

For plotting the death of several of hers, for sending the soul-suckers to her Harry’s home, for cruelty both individual and systemic to all creatures, for plotting to ruin her children’s education and childhood, for working to ruin society, for planning on torturing her children with a tool that would forever mark their magic, Hogwarts will punish that woman to the fullest extent.

That woman is marked, in body and magic, is stripped of her robes so everyone can see the marks, and is immobilized in the atrium of the Ministry by her elves. She cannot move, and it will take long for anyone to figure out how to move her, and by then many will have seen her crimes. She will be sent to Azkaban, to the soul-suckers, quickly. (The Wizengamot does not appreciate crimes against their own.)

(Even the soul-suckers will not take her soul, marked as it is, though they will feed off her with delight and a malice rare for them.)

Hogwarts is pleased that the old goat must find yet another Defense professor, though her rage against him gains a sharper edge, for planning to bring that woman to her children. (Regardless that he did not know what that woman had planned.) The house elves agree, and their tricks get meaner.

That Headmaster decides the move her Severus to the Defense professor position, hoping to break the curse. (There is no curse. There are only that Headmaster’s machinations and Hogwarts’ refusal to comply.)

Hogwarts communicates with lovely McGonagall, and gets an assistant for her Severus to teach Defense. (The assistant may have been retrieved via house elf and dropped in front of her Minerva before an explanation occurred. Both people were pleased with the result, and even her Severus looks happier.)

Hogwarts refuses to allow her Horace Slughorn back into the castle to teach Potions. She does not hold a grudge against him, but he grows less careful with age, and more willing to ‘collect’ students. She does not want that for her children. (Plus it is one of that Headmaster’s plans, and she is more than willing to foil those.) He is simply turned around, every time, until he refuses that Headmaster once more. (Especially since her Harry is not there to convince him. That Headmaster went to retrieve him from those Muggles, and he wasn’t there. That Headmaster found him again with her Sirius and Remus, but couldn’t get to him, not through the Black wards.) (The old goat knows now, but it was bound to happen eventually, and she is pleased they managed to hide it for as long as they did.)

So her Severus teaches the upper year potions (which are the only ones he wants to), with yet another assistant. Her Myrtle Warren, who has just gained her Potions’ Mastery, will teach the younger years, with an assistant of her own.

(This time, lovely McGonagall helped Hogwarts find and gain the assistants.) (It is only a momentary kidnapping, they explain and the others agree shortly thereafter.)

Hogwarts is pleased that her professors are happier. (That workload is too much for one person.) She brings in more assistants, and her Filius laughs with delight as lovely McGonagall puts a hand to her face. (The professors can address all of their roles properly for the first time since that Headmaster changed how things worked. Especially since Hogwarts also brought in one of hers who excels at administrative work. The Deputy Headmaster position has had too much on it for too long.)

Her Harry, once he arrives, has no dreams of stone corridors and death by snake. The protection that Hogwarts has put on his still holds strong, helping him keep his mind his own. (That, as well as Voldemort was not resurrected, and cannot send him visions or plan to go after the prophecy regardless.)

The snake Nagini arrives to her grounds with a locket in her mouth with a piece of her Tom’s soul within it. (The snake itself is not a Horcrux, made as it would have been after his bodily resurrection.) The snake is dangerous, and is taken to a far-away forest by her house elves, with the spell that bound it to her Tom removed. It is just a snake now, albeit a large one.

The piece of her Tom’s soul is removed from the locket (which the snake took from Mundungus Fletcher when he stole it from the insane house elf Kreacher.) (The snake was drawn to her Tom’s soul, and found that piece first.) The soul piece is added to the mirror that holds the other piece of her Tom’s soul (and it is one piece now, though still not whole). She rejoices when her Tom’s soul begins to question his previous decisions, to grow the conscience that he tore out of himself all those years ago. (He is not all the way there yet, but this is a big step, and he is so close.) (She still aches for what he did to himself. Aches and grieves.)

Her Weasley twins write their NEWTs early this time. (There is no High Inquisitor to rebel against, no younger children to protect. All that energy now has somewhere else to go.) They take the money they won at the Quidditch World Cup (that she made sure they got) and go to open their dream joke shop. (She is so excited for them and laughs at the chaos that will enter her walls once her students get a hold of their tricks and toys.) They will be successful at this, both of them. (Not only one. Never only one. This time, they get to stay together.)

Her Harry and Hermione and Ron still run a study group, but it was all in fun. There was no threat of expulsion or danger, no need for contracts or hiding. It was a place for hanging out and working together. They even pulled in students from the other houses, from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw and Slytherin all. Hogwarts glowed with pleasure, her children coming together again.

There are no Occlumency lessons with her Harry and her Severus. No sneaking into minds or memories, no remembered and renewed pain. Her Harry’s mind is safe within her magic. That Headmaster is far too distracted to even suggest the lessons. And her Severus is far more healed, with her help, than he would have been otherwise. He has no need to bully a student for their parent. No need to be deliberately cruel in the guise of keeping his access as a spy. (That Headmaster was still holding her Severus to those twisted vows, but without a resurrection of the Dark Lord there was no need to sharpen his edges.) (And he was safe within Hogwarts regardless. She would keep him safe.)

There is no dream of Sirius’ torture, no desperate flight to the Ministry, no fight with Death Eaters, no shattered prophecy, and no deaths.

Harry does not hear a prophecy that would sink its claws into him. (In fact, the prophecy has already shattered. Her Tom has changed enough that it no longer applies. No one noticed.)

Despite that Headmaster knowing about her Harry staying with her Sirius and Remus over the summers, there is nothing he can do when the train arrives at the station at the end of the year, smiles on the faces of her Harry and Sirius and Remus. (Even that Headmaster cannot stand against the newly increased power of Lord Black.)

Hogwarts, despite that Headmaster, still has enough power to change things for the better. Especially for her students (especially for her Harry.)

Chapter Text

Her house elves report to her throughout the summer regarding that Headmaster’s increasingly bizarre and unsuccessful attempts to talk to her Harry and her Sirius. He does not try attacking the Black wards directly (that would mean he had gone fully insane with his pride), but there are increasingly ridiculous attempts that keep both Hogwarts and her Harry and his family amused.

That Headmaster first attempts to send messages with owls. Every single parchment burns up as soon as it touches the wards. (Her elves report that her Sirius has tuned the wards to the old goat’s magic and name, so anything he touches or that has his name on it (and everything he sends does) will be promptly identified and destroyed by the wards. She is pleased with this.)

Next, he attempts to send messages via Fawkes. The exact same thing happens, except that Fawkes goes to play with her Harry for several hours each time the old goat tries. (The phoenix loves him almost as much as she does.)

That Headmaster tries sending house elves with verbal messages. The properties are all warded against elves not sworn to the Black family, and they cannot get in. (They could, of course, they always can, but not for any purpose of a master.)

He tries getting Fawkes to bring him. This time, it is that Headmaster who is removed from the lovely phoenix by the wards and dumped on his backside in a pond several miles away. A pretty pond full of algae and swampweed. Biting swampweed.

Next, he simply shows up outside the wards and stands there, waiting. After several hours of no response (though her Sirius and Remus and Harry are well aware he is there), he starts yelling. Still no response. Once he’s yelled himself hoarse, he turns with a huff and stomps away, leaving her trio cackling with laughter.

Eventually, that Headmaster gives up on trying to get a message through the Black wards. The next thing he does is far more stupid, however, and Hogwarts (metaphorically) cackles with glee at what she and her elves have worn him down to. (The elves cackle literally, of course. Just within that Headmaster’s hearing range, and never where he could see.)

The old goat is obsessed with Voldemort, and in his search for answers and his hubris, he finds the old ring that holds a piece of her Tom’s soul. (The stone in this story is just a stone. Well, one that holds a curse, but still, nothing more than that.) He puts it on, her house elves that have taken to following him report. And the curse takes him, withering spreading up his arm.

The curse is killing the old goat only as fast as it ever would, but he has no Potions Master to create and brew him a potion that will slow its spread. He cannot leverage the vow he twisted out of her Snape, for in no way would such a potion protect her Harry. Regardless, in his paranoia he would not trust anyone to do it for him, convinced that they are plotting against him. (Her house elves have done excellent work.)

That Headmaster tries to bring the ring back to Hogwarts (the magic of it ensures he cannot take it off even if he wanted too.) As with all the other artifacts that have touched her wards containing a piece of her Tom’s soul, she acts the moment she can. His soul piece is removed, and added to the mirror (almost whole!). She cannot remove the ring, but it is only a ring now, and cannot harm anyone else. Let that Headmaster wear it as a reminder of his pride and his failings. (He deserves far, far worse.)

Her Tom is now aware, and sulking about being trapped in a mirror. She keeps an eye on him, listening to him rave and weep about his past actions. Still missing a piece, but almost there. (Besides, it is not safe to let him out yet. Not with that Headmaster still installed in her towers. Almost, though. Almost.)

When her Harry (who got into potions this year, since he had an excellent teacher in her Myrtle last year) loses his potions textbook, he is directed to a cabinet in the back of the classroom, where he finds the textbook belonging to the Half-Blood Prince. When he brings it to the Gryffindor common room, and leaves it on a sofa to play Exploding Snap with his friends, she realizes exactly whose magic signature is woven right through the pages and confiscates it. (Her Harry is exasperated, but her Sirius and Remus sent him a brand-new copy, and it makes them all happy.) When the book was tucked away in a cabinet in a classroom filled with hundreds of magical signatures, including that of her Severus, she had never noticed it. But in the Gryffindor tower, where her Severus never goes, its magical signature sticks out. And she has a house elf bring it back to him. Something that had that much attention paid to it deserves to go back to its rightful owner. Her Severus is confused when he sees it, placed innocently upon a coffee table in his private quarters, but he tucks it in amidst the other texts on his private bookshelves with a small smile nonetheless.

There are no traumatising and confusing Pensieve lessons this year with her Harry. No tricks and obscure lessons and riddles. That Headmaster tries, of course, but her elves have already confiscated his Pensieve and hidden it. (And are dunking apples in it, as the wizards' magic does not work on them.) And her Harry has family that loves him, and refuses to meet with that Headmaster without her Remus or her Sirius beside him.

The old goat hems and haws, but is shot down at every attempt by the Black Lord and his Consort. They are fierce in their defense of her Harry, and she approves greatly.

Similarly, there are no terrifying fieldtrips. That Headmaster is too weak from the curse he brought upon himself to do much, and her Harry would refuse to leave with him anyways. (There is no deep trust here, no feeling of relation and duty. Only rage and annoyance.)

Her Draco does not have to hurt people to try and get to that Headmaster, nor does he have to try and find a way to sneak Death Eaters into the castle. There is no Dark Lord for his family to bow to, and on his own, Lucius Malfoy is far too cunning for a move that stupidly blatant. (To say nothing of Narcissa. She was born a Black, after all. And a Black Lady, at that.)

Her children get to have an education and a childhood, dammit!

Just over a month past Christmas, Hogwarts gets a messenger from Gringotts. The bank had started searching its own vaults since Hogwarts told it about the pieces of her Tom’s soul being littered about, and it found a piece. A goblet, hidden within the vaults of Bellatrix Lestrange. (One of hers, driven insane by the use of forbidden magics. Broken now, and Hogwarts mourns, but never again allowed within her walls. (No one shall threaten her children.))

Hogwarts has one of her elves receive the goblet from the goblin that brings it (they listen to their bank as well as her elves do to her.) Once again, the soul piece is stripped from the object (which is returned to the bank and the vault it came from.) Hogwarts adds the soul piece to the mirror, and her Tom is back. The smart, ambitious man that loved magic he was as a teenager, not the insane thing he became when he hacked himself to pieces. He is fully aware now, and fully able to process emotions and logic. He is only missing the tiny soul piece that is within her Harry, but it is small enough to not make a difference. And with her protecting it, neither of them will ever know. She sends her elves to give him books to read and a radio to listen to, and to tell him to trust her. She is almost ready to fully restore him, but not yet. Soon, when it is safe, but not yet. (He listens, as he has not in decades.)

There is the usual teenage angst again this year, with yelling and tears, but her children are all safe to perform the same stories she has seen over and over again. Getting together, and breaking up, and getting with someone else, in cycles and circles and triangles. She is pleased to see them getting to act like the children they are, rather than the soldiers that old goat would have tried to turn them into.

Summer comes around, like it always does, and Hogwarts quivers with anticipation. It is almost time!

Chapter Text

There is no threat 7^th year.

Hogwarts has already taken care of it.

That Headmaster dies in his bed over the summer, the withering curse placed on him through his own hubris finally reaching the only part of him that could possibly be called a heart. Hogwarts and her elves know immediately, the old goat’s magic finally releasing them.

(The few professors that remain in the castle wonder why all the house elves are covered in glitter for the next week. The celebration doesn't stop for days.)

Hogwarts feels no sorrow for his death; feels no guilt. He brought his own end upon his own head, and caused immeasurable harm to her children in the course of his life. Now that he is gone, she can shed her shackles and bindings. (And she will never allow them to be placed again.)

Her professors are summarily gently removed to Hogsmeade by her elves, moving them out of her wards. With a noise like the crashing of an avalanche, Hogwarts uses all the energy she has stored up and fully tears down and replaces her wards. No more exceptions, or loopholes, or tears. She is at full strength and ability once more, and has consequently locked all future Headmasters out of overriding her. (They may try to convince her if they can, but her first priority, now and always, is her students.)

The professors are all gaping, standing in the streets of the wizarding village, and at the noise, other residents come out to join them. They all get to watch as Hogwarts disappears momentarily behind a glittering curtain of magic and comes out fully repaired and cleaned. Her stones, which had been chipping under that man’s rule, are whole once more. Sturdy.

It is lovely Minerva who first makes the connection, that the old goat must be dead. There are some tears from the professors, even before it is confirmed, but that man, driven to paranoia, had been pushing everyone away for some time. Still, their grief is normal, and Hogwarts accepts that they have now lost someone they knew for a long while, and trusted (at least at some point, if not now.) (Even as she celebrates her freedom.)

When Hogwarts has restored herself, her elves appear again to transport her professors back onto the grounds. (None of the gawkers from the village, not yet.) They find the old goat’s body, and precious Pomona (to everyone but Hogwarts’ surprise) is the one that takes action to get everything sorted. The Aurors are called, and the body removed to be investigated (though there is nothing to find but the curse).

By the time the first students arrive in September, her Harry among them, her Pomona Sprout is now Headmistress of Hogwarts. Hogwarts has accepted her gladly, pleased that the fierce momma badger will now get to watch over all of her students. Pomona Sprout listens to Hogwarts, always has, even as a student. Now, Hogwarts bubbles with joy at how well her Pomona can hear her. (It’s been so long since she had a Headmaster who could really hear her. That man certainly didn’t.)

Hogwarts didn’t have to introduce (kidnap) any new professors or assistants this year, as her Pomona recognizes how much better it has been going with the increased number of staff, and continues the trend, hiring even more staff with Hogwarts’ approval. (They always had the funds for it, that man was simply skimming off the top. And Hogwarts was hiding most of her deep vaults from him. She opens them gladly for her Pomona.)

Now that Hogwarts is free, and her Tom is basically whole, she gives him a body, carefully crafted. He resembles himself faintly (or at least the self he should have been), but not enough to make even Minerva (who knew him at school) suspicious. He joins the influx of teachers and staff and Hogwarts hums especially loud with joy during his interview. Her Pomona hires her Tom on the spot. He ends up co-teaching Defense with her Severus (as he always wanted) and leading the Dueling classes on his own.

With her Tom’s soul returned, and his conscience restored, no one recognizes him by his personality either. All he ever wanted was to learn and share magic, and now he has his chance. (And he still listens to her, when she needs to chastise him. He is a new teacher, after all. He will learn, and as quickly as he ever does.)

Her Severus is finally freed from all the twisted Vows that man had held him under. He disappears for the last month of summer, reappearing on the first of September with the students, looking settled in himself and quietly content. He negotiates to drop even more classes so he can take on an apprentice and for his own research, and it is the best year he has ever had.

There is no dark mark lurking within or above the castle. (Hogwarts stripped that magic from her Tom when she remade him, and it faded from its bearers’ arms shortly thereafter.) There are no torturers within her walls, no need for secret medical facilities or sleeping quarters. (Students still hide, as is their wont, but out of mischief now, instead of terror.)

There is no need for her Harry and Ron and Hermione to go on the run, terrified and starving. Her Severus does not have to stand alone, still playing both sides. Her children do not have to learn to be soldiers or minions. (They do not have to learn how to kill each other.)

There are no betrayals, no abandonments, no traitors. Friends are not forced to shun each other. (In fact, her Houses are growing closer than ever, thanks to her Harry’s study group.)

There is no Final Battle, no war raging across her grounds. None of her students or professors are scared for their lives. (The only battles fought on her grounds are the never-ending ones with homework.)

No one dies. Not with Hogwarts watching and protecting. No families are split apart, no orphans are created (they are always created, they never just appear).

(Her Harry does not have to walk to his death within her forest.)

There is no threat, no danger, in 7^th year.

The manipulator is dead through his own hubris, and the once insane dark lord has returned to the genius boy he was when he first came into his own within her walls. The key players in the almost war have been removed.

Her children are safe, and well educated, and happy.

Hogwarts will continue to watch, and guard, and hold all her children safe within her walls. For all 7 years that they are with her, and for whatever time they come back to her.

Some of her children always come back. A few to visit, and some to stay. (Her professors are still her children, after all.)

Her Neville will come back, she thinks. And her Harry. They feel at home within her, moreso than the others, their magic resonating deeply with hers, and they will come back. What they will do, or teach, is up to them, but she will treasure the touch of their magic when they return.

The others will go out, and make their place in the world (or make the world make a place for them, like her Hermione). They may come to visit, or may not. But they were hers for as long as they were with her, and they will remain hers whether or not they ever return.

Hogwarts, the castle, will continue to protect all within her walls.